Nightlife Report Exclusive · Tech & Nightlife · Hermosa Beach
Interview by Anthony Perlas
@socalguy24 / Instagram“/>HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — The average online adult now spends 18 hours and 36 minutes a week scrolling social and video feeds. Daniel White built a social app that counts it as a win when you put your phone down.
White is the founder and designer of TúGather, a group-trip and night-out planner that launched on the App Store in July 2026. In a business that runs on screen time, he says he is not selling your attention to anyone.
The industry turns users into the product. I want users to be MY customers so I can focus all energy on making their online life easier and more fruitful by planning events to get put down the doomscrolling so they can get out there and GO DO THINGS.Daniel White
Why it matters
Feeds have swallowed a large share of waking life. DataReportal’s Digital 2026 Global Overview, drawing on GWI data, puts the weekly average at 18 hours and 36 minutes, roughly 16 percent of the typical online adult’s waking hours, and more than 3 hours and 40 minutes a day for women aged 16 to 24.
A counter-market has been building. Partiful, the Brooklyn invite app founded on “bringing people together in person,” averaged 500,000 monthly active users in the first quarter of 2025, up 400 percent year over year by Sensor Tower’s estimates, CNBC reported; its CTO said driving people to stare at “this endless feed of content” wasn’t meaningful to her. Apple launched its own Apple Invites in February 2025. And Hinge launched its fifth “Designed To Be Deleted” campaign in 2024, a theme it first ran in 2019, per the company, with a stated mission “to create a less lonely world by inspiring intimate, in-person connections.”
That is the lane White is entering, and he names Hinge himself.
Our goal is not for users to delete the app, like Hinge, however the goal is for them to put the app down as often as possible, to enjoy their trip.Daniel White
What TúGather does
The app puts a group trip or night out in one place: a shared itinerary, a group chat for each event, flight and hotel details, expense splitting, invites and a shared photo gallery. The tagline: “Plan it TúGather. Live it TúGather.”
A fully filled out event card within TúGather, with a compelling description, an exciting destination with lively group chat, smiling trip photos, a robust itinerary and group expenses entered for timely repayment.Daniel White, on the image that sums up his product
Green checkmark emoji’s illicit a smile.Daniel White, on the detail only his team notices
The founder’s bets
When did he stop playing small? “Last Week, when I hired a marketing agency. Signed up for Angel investor seminars.” His boldest bet: “A-skewing advertising dollars.” If he restarted tomorrow: “Go to market. The app world is changing fast and Ai has provided the tools and answers for years now.”
What almost killed it? “…I refused to allow it to because I believe in the mission of helping people to plan trips through simple logistics organizing with TúGather.”
In his own words: the projection
Marketing spend while pre-revenue.Daniel White, on the next 90 days
We’re in the high growth phase so we’re trying to dial that in now.Daniel White, on reaching ten times the audience
Socials and content are being created next week. Please check for them on major social media platforms.Daniel White, on what comes next
He is building his creative team now. For credits he wrote: “None, I’m hiring now for this.”
The outlook
Spending on marketing before revenue is the move skeptics question and founders defend, and White is doing it in a category where well-funded players, from Partiful to Apple, are already competing for the same group chats. His edge is the pitch itself: an app that measures success by how little you need it. If the metric that made Hinge a household name works for nights out, TúGather is early to the argument.
That last trip was everything.Daniel White, on the sentence he wants said when he isn’t in the room
Your turn: should the apps that plan your nights out want more of your screen time, or less? Tell us at nightlifereport.app.
Sources
- DataReportal, Digital 2026 Global Overview Report (GWI data)
- CJ Haddad, “Meet Partiful, the Gen Z party-planning staple that’s taking on Apple,” CNBC, Apr. 19, 2025
- Hinge Newsroom, fifth “Designed To Be Deleted” campaign, Apr. 9, 2024
- TúGather: tugather.app and the App Store listing
- Daniel White, written answers to the Nightlife Report Founders & Creatives questionnaire, Oct. 26, 2026, published as written with his release
Interview by Anthony Perlas. Lead photo: @socalguy24 / Instagram. App imagery courtesy Daniel White. Follow @socalguy24.
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